


Windward

by Butterfly



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-07
Updated: 2004-09-07
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniel tries, but the words lie just outside his reach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Windward

**Author's Note:**

> **Timeline:** Set sometime post S8's _New Order_.

Daniel paused, his fingers resting lightly on the stone.

"This is hopeless," he said, rubbing against the not-yet-smooth grain. He could barely feel the shapes of the letters and the words were illegible. Too many years of wind and sand had doomed this monument to silence and whatever glory or tragedy that it might have once recounted was lost.

"Did you want to head back now?" Sam said, her voice sharp in the current stillness. Daniel turned, half-startled, and blinked at her silhouette. She shifted, and it was easy to see the impatience filling her up to the brim, despite the sunlight spilling over her shoulders, hiding the details from him. Daniel turned back to the stone, gaze skipping over the slight shadows that weren't enough to tell him anything useful. He knew that if he looked around the pillar, just a little to the left, he would be able to see Teal'c in the near distance, stationed just past the long shadow of the stone, presumably as alert as he always was. That was supposed to be reassuring, but Daniel knew better.

"We haven't been here long enough," he said, choosing to focus on where his hand touched sun-warm rock. A simple pillar, less than ten feet tall, only two feet wide and three long. It felt like granite, but was a soft, almost glimmering purple shade that he'd never seen on anything but gemstones. It was the only evidence of intelligent life in the immediate area and once upon a time, Sam would have been the first person to back him up in finding something more. "There are still places that we could explore. Places where people may have left more of a mark."

But now she was the colonel, was the person who tried to hurry him along.

He pressed his hand more firmly against the stone, spreading his fingers out until they ached with the stretch. He could feel the words on his skin, could feel the potential, but all the pain in the world couldn't coax them back out.

"Daniel," she said, after a long moment, the word filled with a universe of meaning that he couldn't quite grasp. "The General told us-"

"I know," Daniel said abruptly, resisting the urge to tell Sam what she could do with Jack's orders. He let out a breath, surprising himself with the weight of the sound. He tried again, more softly. "I know, Sam. Weapons or evidence of advanced technology."

He could spot the advancing edge of Sam's shadow out of the corner of his eye, but he stayed where he was, setting his shoulders and widening his stance as he pushed one-handed against the rock, as if he could knock it over where uncounted years of desert storms had failed. Jack would have made a smart comment, would have been annoying.

This was better, quieter.

"We can stay one more day," she offered and he watched as her shadow almost connected with his, light flooding the gap as she pulled back again. "We can scout up past the west side of the Gate area tomorrow."

"One more day," Daniel said flatly, not sure himself if it was a question or agreement.

A soft wind stirred, sand lifting up to its call.

He remembered how that felt.

 __

the end


End file.
